Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
If Illinois does not reform pensions through a constitutional amendment, or spending, through some significant reduction of public employees, then the taxing of retirement income will be absolutely necessary. At that point the exodus from the state will increase significantly. None of our elected officials has the courage to talk about it. They are only interested in self preservation and getting their piece of the pie.